STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 71 



of improvement and of happiness which they are calculated 

 to dispense. Is it not a mandate of duty, then, as well as of 

 expediency, that the benefits of public instruction should be 

 more generally dispensed ? 



&quot; We hazard not the fear of contradiction in assuming, that 

 if a moiety of public moneys, which have been appropriated to 

 literary schools, had been judiciously applied, in rendering- 

 science subservient to the arts, and in diffusing the higher 

 branches among the labouring classes, the public benefits from 

 the appropriation would have been far greater than they are 

 at the present day. How many hundreds may now be pointed 

 out, of liberal education, who are mere ciphers in society, for 

 want of the early habits of application and labour, which it is 

 the object of the proposed school to form and infix I And 

 how many, for want of these habits, have been prematurely 

 lost to their friends, and to a purpose of usefulness for which 

 man seems wisely to have been created that of doing good 

 to his fellows. 



&quot; From a full conviction that the interests of the State not 

 only warrant, but require, an appropriation of public moneys 

 to this object, your committee beg leave to recommend to the 

 consideration of the Society the following resolution : 



&quot; Resolved, That a respectful memorial be presented to the 

 Legislature, in behalf of this Society, and of the great inte 

 rest which it represents, praying that suitable provision may 

 be made by law, for establishing a school of agriculture, on 

 the plan recommended in the preceding report ; and that the 

 co-operation, in this application, of societies and individuals 

 friendly to the object of the petition, be respectfully solicited. * 

 i 



The report is attributed to Mr Jesse Buel, and is a docu 

 ment creditable to its author and the society which adopted 

 it. It advocates mental cultivation of farmers, as the best 

 means of improving agriculture, and youth as the seedtime of 

 an abundant harvest of human knowledge. Whatever diver 

 sity of opinion may exist in rural matters, every individual 

 who has reflected on the subject, will admit the mind of the 

 farmer is the chief implement of husbandry on which the 

 agricultural system depends, and by which its advancement 



